I dont see any team below 6th with a better current squad and spirit than ours. We can win 9 out the 15 games left on that basis, and with a bit get a point or three off the others. They are all struggling and we've got Everton, Leicester, Wolves and West Ham at all home too! I think he will finish above them all with the possible exception of Wolves. The home match against them could be critical.
I think our run of away games might see us slip down a bit as they are pretty tough but happy to be proved wrong ! Wonder how the Pozzos might feel if we got into Europe but Udinese were relegated!!
Yes, for UEFA, no doubt. Finishing 7th is a poison chalice. Playing FC (insert name of random European town no-one has ever heard of) in July is of little interest. It's family holiday time and proper pre-season time.
Why not take your family holiday in July at a "random European town no-one has ever heard of"? That's what I'll be doing if we qualify. I'm sure my wife will love a few days relaxing at some industrial town in Azerbaijan or similar
I would love to love it too but it seems to put too much strain on the teams who have done it in the past - see Burnley this season. I'd prefer to hit the new Premiership season running, getting off to a good start, fully rested like the last 4 seasons than start badly and play catch up with the threat of relegation not far away. It's the natural pessimist in me!
I think our management team and squad would cope a lot better than Burnley did this season in the preliminary Europa League games. Get into the competition proper and we would be operating at a lot more stressful level in terms of games, and that might stretch the squad. But you only find that out by getting there in the first place!
None. I think you lose money if you're drawn against the Kazakhstan cup finalists & similar out stations.
Oh my!!! How any Watford fan of any era could come out with that comment beggars belief!!! It's JANUARY FFS!!! The default arrogance annoys me a lot more than the delusion. #still focussed on enough points to avoid the drop #Real Watford
Absolutely pathetic. Any right-minded football fan would give their left conker for a European tour, polling brasses in a different foreign city every other week and cheering the glorious golden boys to victory.
The info for this season is here: https://www.uefa.com/insideuefa/stakeholders/clubs/news/newsid=2562024.html Burnley will have got about €840,000 in prize money for getting to the play-off round of qualifying. Plus their share of a €130m solidarity payment which is split between all the clubs who didn't qualify for the tournament proper - which will work out at less than €1m I think, as over 100 clubs get binned off through qualification.
The premier league is a confusing place for some fans. What’s the goal? It was easy in the championship, you wanted promotion any way it came. If any fan of the club doesn’t want European football, because it will effect the following season in the premier league, what is it you’re hoping to achieve then in that following season? If we have a good start we might make Europe! When it comes to the crunch we don’t want Europe so the next season we’ve got a better chance at having a real go at getting into Europe.....and so on and so on. Football never ends and is never won or completed. It’s about moments and surely we’d all love to see us in Europe if it came to it??
I’m glad we’ve got some kind of aim and excitement for the season, a 5/6 team battle for European qualification! And let’s be honest 7th was always the highest we could realistically have come this season, I’d argue it would be our 3rd best ever achievement as a club?
I would love to see us in Europe but don’t think we will finish 7th - although I am a pessimist when it comes to Watford. There are 5 other teams in with a shout and so little to choose between all of those teams and it’s too early to say which one of us can get the results consistently through to the end of the season - yes, we are on a good run of form results wise right now, but despite only losing 1 in 8 we have not opened up a gap to the other 5 teams and I think we’re due a bad run of results where we will drop down and I think one of the teams below us, possibly Wolves, will go on a good run and cement 7th.
34 years since we were last in Europe, realistically that's everyone up to the age of 38/39 never to have seen us in Europe - who doesn't want a crack and hopefully a few decent away days in a Eastern European country? Sure our league position might struggle but if we're not going to push into the top 6 who gives a ****, I'm greedy and would happily sacrifice a few positions the league. The Pozzos have done this Udinese so will know what's needed to maintain a decent position the season after.
I'm 42, my first Watford match was the Saturday after we got knocked out in Prague, so I have followed the Horns longer than anyone to have not experienced us in Europe.
Id love it if we got in to Europe. What's the point of just treading water and getting relegated like sunderland and West brom?
This was like the inspiration speech by Pachino in Any Given Sunday. I started fist pumping at the end at the screen!
Yeah, why not? I think investment this month adding a centre back and forward is integral to our chances. I think having to play Leicester, Wolves, Everton and West Ham at home still is surely an advantage, as well as home games against Fulham and Southampton at home. Our away fixtures look hard, but would fancy us to get results at Brighton, Huddersfield and Cardiff.....let's not forget that Tottenham will be without Kane, Alli, Sissoko, Son and Dembele when we play them next Wednesday which surely gives us our best ever chance of getting a result there? Let's also not forget our injury situation is considerably better than it was this time 12 months ago and we have more strength in depth now. No reason we can't achieve a 7th placed finish, but it's NOT the expectation!
I think we will finish between 7th and 10th + still in the FA cup so you got to hope for a chance of Europe Is the idea of 7th being in Europe based on both league cup and fa cup being won by top 5 teams, as I think First 4 quality for championship Fifth qualifies for Europa If so better winning the FA cup as you go straight in to group stages If you finish 7th taking the league cup place (assuming winning in top 6) you go into the knockout stage I am not sure any of the above is correct
I think we’re in good shape to finish 7th. But in reality we’ve got just as much chance as the other teams around us, so in fact we are probably more likely to finish lower than 7th based on the fact that it’s a pretty even shoot out between a few teams. I think the key is though, that we are knocking on the door. Wether it be this season or in two or three seasons time, we are getting closer. This is our first season in the prem that we’ve not had any genuine relegation worries. It’s also the first time we’ve had second string that has been competitive in both cups. Since getting promoted our overall trajectory has been up, with the odd wobble along the way. This is the most consistent we have been for the longest period of time, which is no coincidence. Even if we sell players like Doucoure, it may put us one step back initially, but we’ll end up two steps forward. For those that worry about the league and the extra games, I think we now have a strong enough squad to cope with both. Undoubtably we'll probably sacrifice a bit of league form, not nowhere near enough to trouble relegation. Burnley are Burnley. They play one dimensional, soul destroying percentage football. I don’t think we can judge ourselves by how Europe affected them. I’d like to think that their style of play will catch up with them at some point anyway.
7th in the Prem and 2 chances (although outside chances) chances of getting in Europe this season as we move into February: can’t think of a better time following the Horns since I started watching in the late 80s....